After weeks of hard work, the color grading for Depleted: Day 419 is now complete. Normally, color grading is performed after final special effects have been laid in. However, with DP Nate Eckelbarger about to move to Austin, TX, we proceeded on to the color grading as soon as picture was locked. (Despite the relocation, we are happy to report that Eckelbarger is slated to return as the DP for the Depleted feature in 2011.)
As I really like to give my visual department the reins in the final look of the film and only get in the way if things are diverging from my overall vision, I was happy to let Nate’s keen eye take lead on this journey. (Interestingly, despite our access to a number of different plugins, we ended up using Magic Bullet Looks almost exclusively, as we continued to discover more and more ways to tweak our image in the most organic and believable way possible.) The final look is gritty, stylized, and tight, bringing up memories of films like The Terminator and The Thing. From here, we move hard into final audio, score composing, and effects!
Director Jeremy Hanke and DP Nate Eckelbarger Figure Out Final Coloration on Depleted: Day 419.
We are in the process of finalizing notes for another chapter in the Depleted saga: Blood of Martyrs. Set 47 days after the Fall, BoM shows the earliest snapshot of the world after the chaos truly sets in. The script was co-written by Kari Ann Morgan and myself, while the brilliant Jason Frederick Gilbert (the director of the award-winning Coat Room comedy) is slated to direct the film. Set to be shot on location in Ashkelon, Israel, the short film will reveal two pivotal characters in the Depleted mythos and new insights into the fate of the world. It is currently scheduled to be shot at the end of this year, with an anticipated release in Q1 or Q2 2011.
We’re very pumped about the upcoming film and the new clues these will be present to our fans! Stay tuned for more news in the near future!
After working for weeks with DP Nate Eckelbarger to come up with a color grading look for Depleted: Day 419,we’re nearly complete with this element of the filmmaking process. To reflect some of the bleakness of humanity over a year into the Fall, we chose to use some subtle desaturation and curves generally. To replicate older lenses, we used anamorphic lens flares when characters are outside, while, indoors, a higher contrast look with more subdued flares conveys the look we’re going for.
Initially done with a variety of different plugins, we eventually chose to go with a straightforward combination of AE/Premiere Pro’s Unsharp Mask plugin and the Magic Bullet Looks suite (with a few uses of Colorista for certain scenes). The power of Magic Bullet Looks is really impressive when you delve past the presets and start using real world camera knowledge. Coming from a digital world, I’ve really enjoyed learning about traditional film recording from my DP, as he’s much more comfortable with film based recording. His knowledge of cameras, lenses, and film helped insure that the looks we came up with are authentic to what real film could capture with specially chosen lenses and glass filters!
To get some previews, you can check them out below.
As the investigation gets hotter and more complex, Gavin Hesterdale discovers crucial information that could finally uncover some of the initial culprits in the global events that ignite the cataclysm of the Fall!
A Moment of Contemplation for Steven "Norm" Mathews on Depleted: Day 419...
His birth name may have been “Steven”, but I always knew him as “Norm.” The nickname, apparently, had been given to him when he was at school in BCTC and, as great nicknames do, it just stuck. He never told me whether it was due to the fact that his bustling personality at times reminded folks of “Stormin'” Norman Schwarzkopf or whether his love of beer and his comfort in groups made him feel like a kindred spirit with Cheers’ perpetual fixture, Norm. We who knew him seem to be equally divided on the subject. (As I learned from his father after the memorial service, it was, in fact, for “Norm” from Cheers. And it was actually appropriated by Steven, not in college, but in seventh grade.)
When I first met Norm, he was working on a short film called, “The Message,” which Eric Henninger had brought me in to co-direct. He was 1st AD and I got to know his boisterous nature well through it. He somehow managed to have packed a 42-year old’s personality into the body of a twenty-two-year-old. After that film, he studied lighting and, when I was in the midst of shooting Nick Denney’s film, The Guardian, he came into replace our gaffer when she could not complete the film. His desire to tweak things until they were as good as they could be allowed us to make the best possible film under the circumstances (The Guardian would go on to win second place in a national film competition) and his wry sense of humor helped keep people sane.
When I first told Norm about the World of Depleted earlier this year, he was quick to point out some of the areas that made no sense to him, forcing me to revise my narrative ideas into a more cohesive whole. After that, he went from being skeptical of the Depleted concepts to being one of their greatest supporters. When he relocated south before we could shoot the prologue to the film, he volunteered to come back so that he could serve as Gaffer on Day 419. During the shoot, he insisted on flirting with our happily married art director, not because he was trying to be inappropriate, but because he knew there was no danger of anything being misconstrued. Norm was one of those guys that, even at times when he was trying to act curmudgeonly, somehow managed to instead be endearing.
He so believed in the Depleted world and what we were striving to accomplish that, when it came to discussions of working on the feature film next year, he requested that he not be paid up front, but that he get a perpetual percentage of the back end. In the world of low-budget films, that sort of belief in a film is humbling and precious! With Norm’s tragic death last week only four days before his 25th birthday, he was denied the opportunity to work with us on the feature film. However, I wanted to share with you, our friends and fans, some of the pictures of him from Depleted: Day 419, as we will keep his memory close in our hearts as we continue to explore the World of Depleted and strive to make it into the narrative work he believed it could be!
God bless,
Jeremy
A Moment of Contemplation on Day 419…
Norm and DP Nate Eckelbarger Talk About The Visual Principles for Depleted: Day 419
Norm and Sarah Jane Help Adjust Lights in Day 419
Norm Mathews and 1st AD Kari Hanke on the set of Day 419.
Norm and DP Nate Eckelbarger Discuss the Best Way to Light Kat Carney and Eric Henninger in Day 419
Norm Mathews Helping Out With Marking on Day 419
Norm Discusses Lighting With DP Nate Eckelbarger
Norm Works With Production Designer, Sarah Jane, on Day 419
Norm Fills The Room With Smoke on Day 419, vaporing Script Supervisor Chris Tanchyk
Steven "Norm" Mathews at work lighting on Depleted: Day 419
The hearts and prayers of all the people behind Depleted: Day 419 go out to the family of Steven “Norm” Mathews. Norm, Depleted: Day 419‘s lighting technician, was killed in a fatal car wreck yesterday morning outside of Louisville, KY. He was only 24.
Scott Walker of Brain Candy LLC (one of the marketing geniuses promoting Depleted and World of Depleted) was recently interviewed by Martin Aggett of Remix Fiction and was able to bring up some fascinating information about things Brain Candy is doing and about the World of Depleted itself. Check it out at:
The World of Depleted community is now open for membership. Membership will allow you to easily comment on any of your favorite blog posts, and will give you secret access to certain exclusive new content before anyone else sees it! Don’t miss out on secret downloads, covert Depleted news, and mind-blowing insight into the ravaged World of Depleted! Just register on the World of Depleted home page to get involved.
